Diana R

Thank you! It's nice to feel validated on a decision I'm not even 100% sure of haha. Yeah, my campus advisor mentioned most Boren awardees fulfill their federal service requirement with entry-level analyst positions. May not be the most glamorous job starting out, but it does help you get your foot in the door if you see yourself pursuing a long-term career in the federal government! Not to mention it's a good way to build your network (and you'll likely meet other Boren awardees who may have similar career interests as you). And I think I saw that you'll be studying Arabic, right? That's a language that's becoming increasingly important both in US affairs and global affairs!

It's a program through the French Embassy for an English Teaching Assistantship in France for a year! I minored in French and, since my undergrad is coming to an end, I've been feeling really worried about my language skills regressing. So spending a year living/working in France before grad school seems like a good way to build upon my existing French skills while they're at their peak and really hammer it into my head, and in my case (with Boren AFLI) I felt like that may be more strategic in the long run if I really do want a future working with US-African relations since French is also a huge language in Africa. I'd still be going through the motions of language learning and living abroad, which I think would only better prepare me for Boren again in the future, so I really hope they'll accept me again once I'm in grad school because I really do want to learn other African languages, and Swahili seems especially underrepresented. I want Boren, but I also really want to do this French program, so I'm hoping I'll be able to make both work-- but also, apparently if I declined this teaching assistantship, it would seriously hurt my chances if I were to re-apply, so that was also something to take into consideration. Definitely not easy to turn down Boren now though--still haven't brought myself around to formally declining it. I know that was a long explanation; hope it makes sense!

Hey, congrats! I also got accepted for an AFLI scholarship in Tanzania this year! Unfortunately, I think I'm gonna decline my award-- I've been going back and forth between Boren and another program I got into, which has been an extremely hard choice for me, but I think I'm leaning towards the other program. That being said, I'm still really interested in Boren and hope I can apply again when I'm in grad school (planning on calling Shereen today to ask if it's possible to reapply after declining or whether that'll just kill my chances going forward lol). I'm going to have some serious FOMO this coming year if I don't do Boren, so, if it's not a weird request (and I totally understand if it is!), would you mind adding me on facebook or instagram or something so that I can get a glimpse of your Boren experience in Tanzania and ask you questions about it at the end? I've already thought of some things I would do differently in my application the next time around, especially surrounding the spring internship, just based on a recent conversation I had with a Boren Tanzania alum-- but I would love to get more perspectives as well as live vicariously through you throughout the next year! And if anyone reading this is an AFLI Tanzania alternate: you may just get my spot! ?